This is a BBC special that aired a while back that is one of my favorite documentaries ever (at least that you can find free online).

It's called the Century of Self, and it focuses on 20th Century America, and examines how brand new ideas from the emerging field of psychoanalysis were being applied in the USA.

It charts how Freud's theories were applied for marketing, for war propaganda, to create new desires for products that people didn't need, and even for politics by both Democrats and Republicans.

It shows how the common consciousness itself has totally changed in the past century, and how Freud's ideas about how the mind words helped change it.

This is fairly non-political, it's a british doc so they aren't tied up in American party politics. They criticize the Democrats more than the Republicans towards the end of the film.

It's extremely interesting and I highly recommend it.

It comes in 4 parts, an hour each, so this could be a fun little project to do this week if you've only got an hour a day to watch movies.

Century of Self - Part 1 (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6718420906413643126#)

marv

03-26-2011, 11:47 AM

Vance Packard (1914-1996) wrote what might be called "prequels" to this theme - if the term would be appropriate.
The Waste Makers (1960)
The Hidden Persuaders (1957)
The Status Seekers (1949)
The books cover America's consumption society as Packard observed it in the post-war period through the fifties. Good reads all of them. Should be available at Amazon.